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Friday, September 07, 2007

Non-Malay Deputy VC appointed

Read this in the Star today. UM has appointed a non-Malay to the position of deputy VC (development). It was reported that 'the Higher Education Ministry has approved the creation of a new deputy vice-chancellor's (V-C) post in Universiti Malaya that will help link its research development with infrastructure development.' I was pleasantly surprised to it was a non-Malay who was appointed to this position since I had always assumed that all the deputy VCs in the public universities were 'reserved' for Malays.

This is not to say that I think that a person should be appointed to a certain administrative post just because he or she is of a certain race. I would support the candidacy of any and all qualified candidates regardless of race. But we have seen how certain Malaysian academics have left our shores and have become VCs in other universities in Asia most notably Prof Wang Gangwu who was the VC of the Hong Kong University from 1986 to 1995. The fact that many of these academics (mostly non-Malays) who have been passed up time and time again for promotion opportunities probably encouraged them to relocate to other universities in other countries in the region or further abroad.

Prof Dr Khaw Lake Tee certainly seems qualified. It was reported that 'Prof Khaw earned her first-class honours in Law from UM, a master’s degree from Monash University, Australia and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science', a pretty impressive CV.

It was also reported that 'Other universities to follow suit in making such an appointment are Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara.'

I think this is an encouraging move in so far as it seems to indicate a greater willingness on the part of the MOHE to level the playing field, as it were, by promoting a more meritocratic approach towards promotion opportunities in our public university.

But I'm still waiting for the day when we get to see a well established and well qualified non-Malay academic take up the position of the VC of a Malaysian public university.

51 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Here, here good step to have non-Bumi VC especially if it comes from abroad. We should have one Indian and one Chinese VC to make the public universities mulicultural rather than being bent on one race. Merit rather than color of ones skin.

When a country need the education minister to approve ANYTHING to do with the university, the system are already f*ck up. And those appointment are know are political driven, it make no different whether the appointed personal is a Malay or non-Malay.

sorry, the appointment smells a little bit off to me. oh no, not because of the potential tokenism, or the need for a chinese ticket...

she is from the law faculty in UM. where was Rafiah from again, previously? another parachute? oh my, there must be a dearth of capable people in UM.

congratulations Prof. Dr. Khaw. You must be another capable woman waiting for a go at bringing glory to our hapless academia. I wish you all the best, nevertheless. as long as you make a difference in the right ways, who am I to be a skeptic, right?

signs of change, but not necessarily of progress. same thing with the interference of royals in trying to right some affairs of the state.

Ha ha ha! Most of the people who leave comments on this blog are quite funny. Nothing ever seems to satisfy them! :-)

If Prof Khaw seems quite capable, good for her then.

Fair enough - let's see how the UM management team delivers after this. I believe the VC said Khaw would be DVC Development, and that the current R&D DVC would focus more on Research (and Industry?). It's just quite tiresome to read all this doom-and-gloom some times.

UPM has another non-Malay DVC. Am i sensing something here? Are they selected truly base on merit? Why Chinese?

But still, i doubt the so called DVC post. Do they have the autonomy to do whatever they want and carry out their duties professionally? Or will they be constraint with certain gigs from the upper management? In that case, how do thing justify?

USM has also appointed a non-bumi (Chinese Malaysian) TNC (Industrial and Community Network) on Thursday (6 Sept). He is Professor Lim Koon Ong. Read his biography here: http://www.usm.my/v3/berita-penuh.asp?id=3281&idform=7

In Malaysia, things happen at the whims of our politicians. One day it is this, another it is that, at the snap of the fingers. If the PM can make such easy 360° turnaround about the issue of secularity of the country, this is much easier meat for him. I am sorry, after the British left, this kind of issues should not even be made a fuss, yet the fact that it is a fuss suggests that the Chinese are just mere stooges of others' political whims.

I have to thank Kian Ming for the effort in blogging the issue concerning education in Malaysia. However, I do wish that the focus on the appointee is not so much on where she graduated from, but rather on her achievements and accomplishments before the appointment. After all, George W Bush also has a couple of Ivy-league degrees and his performance thus far has not done much justice to his alma maters. I have to emphasize that this is not inferring that Prof Dr Khaw cannot do her job well. Rather, IMHO, it would be better to highlight her accomplishments if you really want to assess her qualification for the appointment.

It is not that we are hard to satisfy but have become skeptical to these theatrics. OK, non-bumi DVC, but the quality of workers are still not good enough.

My viva was delayed for a month because they sent my thesis to the wrong external examiner in the wrong university. It would have been longer if I have not by chance glance at the external examiner's name and asked my lecturer about it (which by 'law' we should have no information of). Therefore as any postgraduate/researcher would know, the duration of our postgrad studies reflects to a certain extent our competencies. So you could imagine my disgust at the prolonged period of my studies because of some fool who could not differentiate well lecturer's name.

So pardon us for being hard to satisfy. As too much hope will only bring too much disappointment. One can only hope that the anger and feeling of unjust can lead to positive actions brought about by ourselves, and not caring to what happens around us we just work heads down to achieve any materialistic success, which could well be the only consolation we get from our struggles.

p/s: all postgraduate students please take note and follow-up on your supervisors on the external examiner's copy your uni sends out. Otherwise you will end up like me.

To appease the Chinese, they created these positions that have almost nonsensical tasks. As far as I know, all universities already have DVCs for Research and Innovation staffed by Bumis. All the functions are already covered by the existing DVCs. Obviously their intentions are to just dress up the administrations -- all shows with no actual results to be expected. All these about industrial and community networking and research infrastructure development are just craps. If the govt is serious, try replacing some of the existing DVCs and VCs, and do a real job of looking for the best people internationally.

look at the Star newspaper today. Walk in interviews are being held to fill up 2000 vacancies in the public universities. Those who missed the interviews can apply online.

We didn't even know that there is such an interview. Only knew yesterday and today, that it is held in KLCC. I think it caters only for KL people. Since KL people can go to KLCC after reading that news.

And it 'encourages ' Non-bumis to apply. Huh?? Where is the advertisement???

It's very disheartening to know that many people are still trapped within that mindset of racism. Like it or not,we are still debating on issues along racial lines. Look at what we're saying - " when would the VC be a Chinese?, " I thought the post has always been held by a Malay"......Honestly, if we think we want to bring any changes at all to Malaysian politics, we would have to take the first step towards changing the values and belief system of Malaysian society. We can't keep harping on any issue from the entrenched racial perspective. Anyone who is worth his or her salt should be considered eligible for the post regardless of his or her ethnicity and if the politicians can't see or even refused to acknowledge that,then we just have to keep on saying it until it gets into their thick skulls. Remember, what is now considered a norm was once upon a time an oddity. So the issue here is really not so much as race as to whether the person appointed has the required substance and personality to fill the post. Every ethnic group has its own black sheep too. Excellence does not lie in one's skin colour but rather in one's attitude and brains. Cheers.

I'm a little disappointed by this post. What does it matter what the race of the DVC is? Your points are valid within a certain framework but I think drawing attention to these sorts of things only entrenches the racial paradigm most of us already operate in.

More to the point would be asking who the VCs are at present and to what extent they have the power or ability to shape the direction of their institutions.

On a more facetious note, what you have done is probably exactly what UMNO wanted you to do given the proximity of the general election. So if only to be contrary... ;-)

It looks like an exercise to beef up the top management by getting the VC sidekicks. UPM's new DVC is also from the Faculty of Economics.

It is quite a sudden creation of a new position, not to mention the rapidity of filing them up.

I am not against open interviews like the ones called by the MOHE. However, like the appointment of these DVCs, I fear such quick appointments will only result in painful lessons.

I wish all the new DVCs all the best in their endeavors. Now, every public university will have at least 4 DVCs. I hope the money is well spent. Yes, the public universities need industry linkages, but things don't usually happen at those levels, but rather, at the faculties and empowered deans.

We should figure out if the new appointments are an effort to help the VCs emerge from a position of autonomous strength or diverting the attention of some old portfolios.

Honestly I don't know if it is good or bad. But I may add a few points for discussion.

1 - Is this an election appointment? Meaning they are appointed for "hoo-hah" this year, and once elections over, these Chinese will be sidelined in the Unis?

2 - What are the deliverables? Are the Unis poised to deliver more with opening up of top positions to non-Malays?

A bit out of point, I notice NUS has updated their website. The minimum requirement is practically sama sama as Oxford! And understanding their Singaporean mentality of kiasu, they would have actually published lower requirements from what they actually took to have "buffer" applicants in case the numbers not enough.

Is there a timeline for our Unis to match up to this achievement? NUS now takes Oxford type of students. When can Malaysian Unis do the same?

According to Limkitsiang blog, rubella is detected in UM campus. Wonder how the present VC will react to this. I hope no pregnant ladies were in the campus during the Rubella outbreak...if not some one will have to answer

A month late viva still ok. Mine, after one year submission of my PhD thesis at the most establish private U in malaysia, (the dean & DVC are chinese)..... I wonder why it happened to me, a Malay phd candidate for which part of my PhD paper already published in 5 Flagships Journals (cited in emerald etc.). The Faculty keep rejecting the proposed external examiners from leading Universities in US, UK & Australia. ????????

Anon of 9/15/2007 09:10:00 PM: Why don't you let us see the list of "Flagships Journal" that you referred to? Also, did it ever occur to you that your faculty might not have confidence in your work or did not think that your work was good enough to be scrutinised by those people at leading universities, or maybe they questioned your ability to defend your thesis? Many times, I come across students who think that they are so good when in fact they are not. I love to cut them down to size during their thesis defence so that they would leave with the realization that they have much more to learn. A student is just a newbie who has yet to realise what the current state of the art is.

List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.

This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.

This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.

Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?

This list cover a period of about 50 years since independence (1957).

List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):

(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays

(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays

(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese

(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays

(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status

(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies

(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays

(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960

(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%

(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960

(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays

(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved Permits, Taxi Permits, etc

(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers

(14) 100 big companies set up, managed and owned by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc

(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses

(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given

(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)

(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period

(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible

(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays

(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004

(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years

(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under "Look East Policy"

(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)

(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays

(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003

(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957

(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957

(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago

(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas

(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status

(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenship compare with the Chinese and Indians

(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich

(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget

(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names

(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort

(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built

(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates

(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004

(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)

(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins

(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less

(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969

(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed

(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s

(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960

(51) 0 - elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s

(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record

(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays

(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum

There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of "colossal" racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.

Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the "special rights" of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.

Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.

If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.

Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….

We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how "implementation of special rights of malays" had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.

Anon, 9/17/2007, example of flagship journals, Industrial Management & Data System (cited in emerald)(Impact factor: 2.2(2006), Journal of Computer Information Systems (Impact factor: 0.7 (2005). I wonder if as you think that my work has no quality, I've successfully completed my internal viva without any question. Already presented at International Conferences organized by top ranking university in US, reviewed by chief in editor from many refereed journals (during the conferences)and already won 5 awards (from US, Korea and Malaysia...

I smell racism here. KM, perhaps you should say someone with credibility regardless of her race should take up the VC position in the public universities instead of mentioning 'non-Malay' in your last paragraph.

'Yes, to create a vacancy at the Law Faculty so that a Malay Dean can be appointed. She's been holding the Dean position for too long creating a lot of frustrations there.'

Hey, don't jump to conclusion, plz! I'm a Law student in UM, and our new dean is also a non-Malays...so ur conclusion is absolutely...out of question.

Don't know what's the prob of most people who commented on this post...why you must always look at everything negatively? With the mindset like this, our country would never develop...each time a non-Malay is appointed to a high post, the issue of trying to get support from the Chinese would come out. Why must you be so sarcastic? I don't get it! Does it give u any benefit by bringing up the issue of 'so-called' racism?

That's human. U would never be satisfied. I bet, even there is a public uni VC from non-malay, u would still criticise it, rite?

Btw...all the best to Prof. Khaw.I know she will do her best as she had done her job excellently when she was our Faculty dean..good luck prof!

To all the 'respected' critics, think again about what i had said juz now. It's not like i hate to read critics and comments...but a good ones pls...don't just look around u, without any research, and jump on the bandwagon...u won't sound wise...tq..

Hey you people,Just thank god your're born here if not.....just look next door....indonesia, brunei, thai, singapore????? are they better off than malaysian.............if your answer is YES i am sorry for you!!!!.There are lots and lots of malaysian chinese out there that is unsatisfied with the so call malay runned BN goverment....ok that is not wrong because i tend to agree with you on some of the policy..........now look across Johor.........now ask how many chinese there is fedup with the so call perfect isaland run by so call educated meritocrasy chinese goverment......nearly 3/4 young singaporean have left that island....and the indians and malay are so scared to even open their mouth.....so please stop your ill feeling towards the malay run goverment cos its hard to live in harmony while having citizen of different background and needs, such as the chinese and indians ......take a look at china/taiwnan and india/pakistan...do you want to live there????? i dont think soooo...... so lets talk MQA and how to improve things, okay.

True ! For almost 50 years , The chinese denied the top management posts given to the Malays just because they are a bunch of Malays working in Chinese Firms.

If Israel can do what everthing they think right for their people,( regardless what the world say ) why can't the Malay government do it for the Malay ; if Singapore can be biased to the malays who are also their citizens, why can't you guy just keep your mouth shut ang stick to it

If Hang jebat ran amok at the Sultan, The Malay leader, what's more if you just another Chinese who are so demanding

Human book ,your statistics is more on Government bodies ( Majority of Malay Population).

I think it's fair to quote statitics in firms owned by Chinese

After 50 years of independent , i think its fair to give them a lesson for being so "biadap" and ignorant of Malay culutre, they deserved to be beated up when speeding up in kg; so rude by sayimng " gua tak tahu" when asking for direction when it is in their chinese areas,etc

You're one DAMN COMMUNIST!! I should have let the Japanese stay here n slaughtered u all!! You should be lucky knowing that u live in m'sia..Imagine if u lived in a war infested country? How would u feel abt that?..u wake up n BOOM a bomb came straight to ur hse!

And I just don't understand why there's a big fuss being made just because a non Malay being chosen as a DVC...to the extend when people sees racism issue behind this event?

If merit is the key of measurement, y bother what's the race is? An employment of a non Malay DVC only shows his/her merit in the job, and races should be the minimal concern.

And judging by your way of speaking, KM, are u trying to imply that previous Malay DVC or VC are unqualified to their own respective title? Well, I do see a decline in our university's standard, but I believe the race of VC is a least issue here.

Come on Malaysians, we are always thought to look on merit rather on race, but truth to be told, people react on this post because of a NON MALAY being voted rather than a QUALIFIED person is appointed...

31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957

(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957

Hello

Human Book's statistical evidence has serious issues concerning realiability and validity. Some of the points are massively flawed. For example regarding the populations of chinese and India in Malaysia in 1957 and 2004. Of course there was a massive drop of chinese and indian's populations as Singapore back in 1957 was part of Malaysia. I suspect he was rather emotional in 'compiling' all the statistics and that seemed to have clouded his judgment.